As most of us take the day off work and tuck into mounds of mashed potatoes, gallons of gravy and tons of turkey, our minds — at least for a few hours — can take a rest.

There never seems to be a shortage of major crises in our own lives, as well as the world at large to help us maintain a seemingly endless tension headache. It’s nice to let our blood pressure rise naturally — through fatty foods — instead.

With the paper slated to hit the newsstands on Turkey Day, we thought it apropos to offer up a list of things for which we’re thankful.

First and foremost, we’re thrilled that the election is over. No more attack ads, at least for a while. We can stop caring about Ohio again and the airwaves are finally returning to indispensable kitchen appliances, greatest hits collections and exercise machines destined for cobwebbed corners of the basement.

On a more serious note, while negative campaign tactics were rampant this election season both nationally and statewide, trips to the polls locally indicated a much more civil tone, downright convivial.

Also, keep in mind that the Homeless Center is full and other homeless people in cars and tents are sometimes encountered by police officers. Meanwhile, home foreclosures in Rochester in the first nine months of this year hit a record high number — and over the last seven years, more than 700 properties have been foreclosed on in the Lilac City.

Give thanks if you are not among these unhappy statistics, just like safety nets like the Homeless Center, the Salvational Army, Gerry’s Pantry and others give thanks for the continued generous support of donors and volunteers.

Let us also give thanks, at a time when New Hampshire’s manufacturing jobs continue to trickle away — there are now around 65,000, which is 1,000 fewer than last year — that Safran has chosen to locate in Rochester, with the promise of up to 500 new positions, and that a training center is set to open in the spring of 2013 at the Lilac Mall, to prepare people for these new slots.

Let us give thanks that we live in or near a city that has rallied remarkably to the cause known as Howie’s Field of Dreams, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a facility that will allow Buddy Ball to be enjoyed by youngsters with physical or mental challenges that impede them from taking part in regular youth activities at Roger Allen Park. We’re thankful that we live in a community that chooses to honor Howie Seckendorf, who passed away at far too young an age, by completing the field, in his absence.

We’re thankful to live in a community that puts so much emphasis on helping others, from our firefighters sprouting whiskers for cancer awareness to the Journey Church which sponsors our Fourth of July celebration every year, to the Lights of Love, to the various organizations that comprise the Veterans’ Council.

Oh yeah, and we’re thankful for gravy, one of the greatest culinary inventions of all time. It’s not a terrible time to be alive.